High Desert Reflection, by Julie Clayton

Hello, and welcome to High Desert Reflection; Fresh Expressions by Julie Clayton.

In May 2012, I was doing a serious Buddhist meditation practice and as a consequence, something just broke open inside of me. Instead of creating a more calm and quiet mind, I tapped into some crazy powerful energy source, and to handle that energy, I absolutely had to paint. I KNOW EXACTLY WHY VAN GOGH PAINTED!! Since then, I have acclimated to the ‘energy bursts’ (for the most part, anyway). My relationship with the creative process is still very exciting, but a bit less adamant.

More often than not, I have no idea what I am going to paint when I set down before a blank canvas. We converse a bit; I ask the spirit behind the canvas something like ‘Well, what wants to unfurl today?’ And I just start painting. Sometimes it’s a beautiful circular exercise in oneness. Quite often, it’s a bit more convoluted. I am self-taught, and paint with watercolor, acrylics, and oils, though as of late, oils are the medium of choice.

In 2003, my partner and I moved to the High Desert of Central Oregon, and I immediately sensed that I had found my spiritual home. There is nothing like the High Desert anywhere else on the face of the earth: the beauty, the solitude, geology, lava flows, mountains, rivers, lakes, deserts. And the names: Broken Top, Warm Springs, Three Fingered Jack, Crooked River, the Badlands, and more Buttes then you would ever care to know about. No matter which direction I look, inspiration abounds. And then there is that rare High Desert Aire! A note about my titles: I occasionally get a bit exuberant with some of my titles; some of my paintings are named after real places, others are complete imaginary fabrications!